[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: Hey, this doesn't seem fair...



Bob Westerdale quotes:
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Westerdale [mailto:Bob.Westerdale@ametek.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 4:13 PM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Hey, this doesn't seem fair...

   <snip> 
 
         In a related article, just down the page a bit, (Mr. Hager again)  proclaims:

        "Risks of Liquified Natural Gas are Minimal"
            ( snipped...)     The technology isn't complicated. Williams (energy company -)    Operations Director Jim Shannon says the commonly used process that chills natural gas to minus 260 degrees F  and turns it into a liquid is " essentially an industrial air conditioner."   And storing it is likewise low tech.   A possible restraint on increase LNG use is a fear of its destructive force.   Cove Point sits 3.5 miles  from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear Power plant,.  Anxiety about LNG accidents or terrorist attacks could affect any existing or new terminals ( LNG Depots)
        Shannon and Cove Point district manager Michael Gardner downplay the risks.   They note there has been no accident at an LNG facility since a 1944 Cleveland  accident in which LNG tanks ruptured and poured liquified gas into a nearby sewage system, where it collected, vaporized, and ignited.
        Shannon says exhaustive tests have shown that even if a tank at Cove Point ruptured, dikes would contain the gas, and if the gas ignited, the effects would be confined to plant grounds.  " A home a half mile away would feel the heat, but the fire would be contained in the plant, " he says. 

    <snip>
 
A picture of Messers Shannon and Gardner must appear in the dictionary next to the word "disingenuous".
 
They don't mention that the Cleveland accident killed 135 people.  Or the explosion of a liquified gas tank on Staten Island NY on 10 Feb 1973 killed 40 people.  A propylene tank truck went off the road into a roadside campground in Spain on 11 July 1978, killing 150.  A liquified natural gas storage area exploded in Mexico City on 19 Nov 1984 killing 334 people.  There are explosions described as "railroad tank cars": Meldrin, GA, 28 June 1959, killing 25; Waverly, TN, 24 Feb 1978, killing 12.  There are fire/explosions of uncertain cause:  the Salang tunnel fire in Afghanistan in 1982, killing 200 to 3000, depending on who you ask; The Oakland, CA tunnel fire in 1982, killing 7.  There are natural gas pipeline explosions: near Ufa, USSR on 3 June 1989, killing 650+; the recent pipeline explosion south of Carlsbad, NM, which killed 13-14; Natchitotches, LA in 1965, killing 17.  All this gruesome information from my 1995 World Almanac.
 
Well, you could go on and on, citing the hundreds of "smaller" accidents over the years, accidents that kill only two or four or ten or ....
 
Best regards.
 
Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov
 
These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.